Industry Spotlight: Printing Machinery
In the printing machinery industry, one of the more specifc parts of the printing machinery includes printing cylinders. They look like rolls and are often found in the most important part of printing machinery. There are many types of cylinders: plate cylinders, blanket cylinders, impression cylinders, and more. So what is the link between thermal spray coatings and printing machinery? For starters, impression cylinders require wear resistance more than corrosion resistance. In addition, single cylinders are usually covered with a form plate and blanket. Water can stay between these two layers and cause the base materials of the cylinder to corrode. What you should know is that all these capabilities can be provided by thermal spray coatings.
Why People are Now Choosing Thermal Spray Coatings over Nickel-Plating
In the past, many businesses that own and operated steel rollers, paper making machines, paper presses, and more, opted to use defric coatings or nickel-platings. When substrates with complex shapes needed to be dealt with, metal castings are chosen instead. However, the blowholes of metal casting tend to highlight the shortcomings of the aforementioned surfaces. Thermal spraying, since its inception, is widely recognized as one of the best coating technologies for covering the blowholes. It effectively prevents water from causing costly damages and reaching the substrate altogether.
Printing Machinery Coatings Improve Corrosion Resistance of Parts
Certain parts of printing machinery things come into contact with the cleaning fluid, ink adhesives and other types of debris. It is pertinent that these parts receive proper coatings to ensure a long-lasting service. If you use nickel-based printing machinery coatings, it is possible to ensure corrosion does not occur for the long term. At A&A Coatings, we strive to increase operational efficiency of our clients’ parts and are able to create coatings that are ‘tolerant’ to cleaning fluid, inks, and etc. – for more than 200 hours! The tolerance levels of our coatings depend on our customers’ specifications. Hence, you can be sure that we are able to tailor-make the perfect coating according to your specific requirements.
The Printing Machinery Industry Needs Plasma Spraying and HVOF
A wide variety of rolls isutilized in printing machines that are plasma sprayed with oxide coatings (alumina-titania, chromia, and more). Today, some customers have requested to replace the traditional alumina-titania coatings (which are applied via conventionally plasma sprayed methods) with HVOF-sprayed nanostructure titania coating.
These coatings have been found to exhibit a very dense and almost pore free, and uniform isotropic microstructure. Due to the presence of such properties, they provide exceptional corrosion and wear resistance. Blanket cylinders, on the other hand, are rolls that are coated with Hastelloy C. Hastelloy is famous for its stellar resistance to stress-corrosion cracking and the ability to withstand the corrosive effects of wet chlorine gas!
If you want the densest coatings for your printing machinery, it is highly recommended that you go for HVOF coatings. The process produces an impact from the kinetic energy that is so great that the majority of porosity is eliminated. Contact us today if you want to know how A&A Coatings can help when it comes to printing machinery applications.
